Gameday Blog: Bruins vs. Leafs

Despite some pretty sloppy play, the Bruins tallied twice in the
second and will take a 3-2 lead over to Toronto into the third.

The big guys have continued to step up for Boston. David Krejci
buried his first goal since Nov. 7, beating Gustavsson with a snap
shot at the 3:33 mark to put the B’s up 2-1.

Joffrey Lupul and the Leafs responded 3:27 later, as the winger
buried a feed from Phil Kessel on a 2-on-1 to knot things up at
2-2.

With 4:30 to go, Krejci made a tremendous pass around a defender
and back toward Chara near the blueline. The captain wrister home
his fifth goal of the season, giving the Bruins a 3-2 lead.

Boston had a power play with 3:48 to go, as MacArthur went off
for tripping, but a few botched plays at the blueline and some
really lackluster effort in the Leafs’ zone amounted to squat
for the Black and Gold.

Chara and Krejci each have a goal and an assist so far. Nathan
Horton has two helpers.

FIRST INTERMISSION

SCORE
BOS – 1
TOR – 1

SHOTS
BOS – 17
TOR – 16

Twenty minutes are in the books up in Toronto where the Leafs
and Bruins are tied 1-1.

Rich Peverley went to the box for high-sticking with six minutes
gone in the first, sending Toronto on the power play.

The Leafs got on the board first at the 7:29 mark on the man
advantage. Clarke MacArthur made a gorgeous saucer pass to Mikahil
Grabovski, who beat Tim Thomas after getting behind defensemen
Johnny Boychuk and Andrew Ference to make it 1-0.

Midway through killing another high-sticking penalty, this time
to Tyler Seguin, Boston drew a boarding call on Joffrey Lupul and a
holding penalty on Carl Gunnarsson to eventually set themselves up
for a 5-on-3.

The B’s capitalized just four ticks after Lupul got out of
the box. Zdeno Chara sent a pass from the point to Tyler Seguin,
who quickly fed the puck through the Leafs’ three defenders
to Milan Lucic. Jonas Gustvasson couldn’t spring from right
to left quick enough, as Lucic’s wrister up high found the
back of the net.

With four minutes remaining, Phil Kessel took off on a wide-open
breakaway. No. 81 tried to go five-hole but Thomas stood strong,
stopping the shot and Kessel’s forward momentum to keep the
puck out.

The save was the highlight for Thomas, who was just as strong as
the netminder down the other end of the ice. Gustavsson was forced
to make 16 stops, including a few big saves on Nathan Horton
— who missed an open net — and a nice tip by David
Krejci in the opening minutes.